David Meerman Scott, a well-known marketing strategist, coined the term "newsjacking," which he describes as "the process by which you inject your ideas or angles into breaking news, in real-time, in order to generate media coverage for yourself or your business." The concept makes sense, and we all know that a great way to gain relevance online is by leveraging hot topics and news items that are beginning to trend-but it's a competitive, and fast-moving, field. How do content marketers stay on top of the relevant trends and news in their industries to ensure they're curating and communicating fresh, engaging content?

Nielsen published its Cross-Platform Report for Q2 2011, which looks at Americans' media consumption preferences and habits for TV, internet, and mobile devices. The report found that emerging technologies and content options, including online video, mobile video, live streaming, and video on demand, helped drive anywhere/anytime viewing. Almost half of Americans (48%) view video online, and mobile video viewers increased 36% in the past year. Americans watch almost four times more timeshifted content (primarily from DVRs) per week than they do online video.

Breaking the results down by region, Portland, Minneapolis, and Boston adults had the highest cross-platform behavior, while Dallas has the highest DVR penetration, Baltimore had the highest penetration of video game consoles, and Miami had the highest penetration of cellphones. The East South Central region comprised of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi collectively spent the most time on the internet, and the Pacific Coast spent the most time watching online video. The full report is available online.